BUSINESS LIVE: FTSE ticks higher; Oil prices fall; House prices see biggest fall since 2008

Norway’s biggest pension fund has blacklisted Gulf companies over human rights abuses, including state surveillance and treatment of migrant workers.

KLP yesterday said it will boycott firms in the real estate sector in Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait, where it said migrant workers have faced human rights violations.

The fund manager, which has £55billion of assets under management, also targeted Gulf telecoms companies over concerns they have suppressed freedom of expression.

Sophie Lund-Yates, lead equity analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown:

‘There isn’t too much festive cheer for UK stocks on the final trading day of 2023. The FTSE 100 has barely budged in early trading, with news of sluggish house price growth in December adding weight behind the theory of slowing activity.

‘There is an especially strong lens on consumer-facing stocks – we’re only a couple of weeks away from hearing how retailers fared over the crucial Christmas period. Short sellers are circling some areas of the sector in the expectation of bad news.

‘A combination of life becoming more expensive and the prevalence of online options means momentum for the bricks and mortar players has become even harder to harness.

‘The FTSE is also suffering from an information vacuum, which is usual for this time of year, but makes it difficult for it to find its feet. So far, it looks as though the FTSE 100 will have moved largely sideways for the year, thanks in large part to extreme uncertainty and the upwards march of interest rates.

‘Questions now of course turn to next year’s trajectory, and there’s every chance inflation is going to remain stubbornly above the Bank of England’s target – making meaningful interest rate cuts potentially an outside option.’

House prices ended 2023 down 1.8 per cent compared with a year ago, according to the latest figures from Nationwide Building Society.

It means the typical UK home is now worth £259,157; almost 4.5 per cent below the all-time high recorded in late summer 2022.

While Britain’s biggest building society recorded no change in the average house price compared to this time last month, this was down to seasonal adjustment.

The FTSE 100 is on track for a quiet end to 2023 with low trading volumes marking the final session of the year.

The blue cip index is set for a weekly gain with industrial metal miners leading the charge on higher copper prices, while a drop in energy shares caps momentum.

For the year, the FTSE 100 has added over 3.7 per cent for its third consecutive yearly gain.

The FTSE 250 is up by around 4.5 per cent for the year.

Industrial metal miners are up 0.5 per cent, with prices of copper moving upwards as the prospect of US interest rate cuts brightened the outlook for the metals.

Heavyweight oil and gas shares have moved down by 0.1 per cent, but are set for a yearly gain of more than 4.6 per cent.

In corporate news, iron ore pellet producer Ferrexpo shares are up nearly 5 per cent after the company posted end-of-year report.